1976 3/4ton 4x4 Shortbed

[l79m20]

BEFORE

[l79m20]

AFTER - Lots of wire wheeling and prep. Got 2 of four done.

[l79m20]

My dad is working on his 66' and wants me to get all my junk out of his bed so he can start driving it again. So I decided to put the front end together, thinking that I had all the parts from the 6 different sources I got them. When I bought the fenders,hood, core support it all came with extra parts, so I had to weed through them and find the good stuff. As I was doing so, I found these jewels that had been custom made for the lift on the rear.

Managed to sort through everything and find all the pieces. Come to find out the drivers side headlight bezel got broke and all 3 of my lower grill panels had their own issues. One was for sure driver quality so its no big deal.

[l79m20]

Went to the junk yard because I new there was a good bezel I could take, also found a perfect lower grill panel and took it too. All for $20. Now if you notice the picture above the grille is in but not super secured. Got two trim screws right down the middle but either side top and bottom arent in. I need the little plastic retainers to fully lock em down. The autoparts stores all dont know what they are, or where to get em. Junk yard didnt have any either. Good thing LMC is around. A buck a piece is a bit pricey but whatev.

[l79m20]

Anywho, got the front bumper on and locked down, although a bit crooked. Also, grille is an 80, but I think it looks best of all my options. Will have to fix that. Thank goodness for the long weekend coming up. More work to get done soon!

[l79m20]

A few pics from last weekend. Not a lot to report. Too hot, and too many other more fun things to do. Here are the backside of the rims before. Got the last 2 done.

[l79m20]

After lots of work. I know its the backside of the wheel and no one will ever most likely see it, but it will help the longevity of the wheel.

[l79m20]

Welp, big news, found the problem and got the truck started. Like I said in a previous post, the truck had an added push button start on it for some weird reason. Truck would start with it when I first got it. Since changing it all over to the short frame and trying to tidy up the wiring and removing the push button, the regular ignition cylinder wouldnt engage the starter. I dug and dug and dug, and after 2 weeks of no luck I finally found it. The neutral safety switch was to blame. It was hooked up correctly but the square tab had been rounded down on one corner so when it tried to put it back into "park" the column slipped over it. Put a new one on and tada. It works! Gas tank wasnt in yet nor plumbed so I poured some gas in the carb and she fired right on the first try! More to come!

[l79m20]

Getting it to start really lit a fire under me to get a bit more done. My gas tank came from the 2 wheel drive frame I bought in the beginning to get the bed and NOS bedside. It had a bunch of surface rust and about an inch sludge in the bottom. I spent several hours cleaning the inside of the tank out. I put 3 10ft log chains into the tank with some degreaser and slid it back and forth about a trillion times. Cleaned it out, sprayed it with water, did it all again, cleaned it again, and then added some muriatic acid and sloshed around. Let it sit for about 10 minutes, and then washed it out again. When it was all said and done it looked pretty good inside. I then used the die-grinder with a wire cup and knocked all the scaly rust off and painted.

[l79m20]

For an anti squeak surface I used some window weather proofing stripping to go around the tank. It is self adhesive on one side and then a foil on the other side. Worked pretty well. Also got the sending unit installed and the whole tank assembly put into place and locked down. Good thing the tank mounts are bolted on. If you could not remove it, it would be near impossible to get it in there with the cab on.

[l79m20]

Got all that wrapped up and moved on to trying to get the passenger side fender to sit correctly. If any one has any tips on this or comments on how to do it "correctly" I would love to hear them. I pulled the bolt from the front cab mount out, and then jacked that front corner up with a floor jack. Added some shims, check and did it all over again. I have almost an inch of shims in that one spot. Surely this cant be correct. Unless it find where it causes me more issues, I will just leave it. Looks good enough to me!

[l79m20]

Alright Alright Alright, made some good progress this weekend. After getting truck running last weekend I wanted to get the fuel system %100 buttoned up.

This is the welded in patch panel that the PO of the bedside had welded in. I took a die grinder with cut off wheel to cut the welds and then pry off the patch. Did really nice work until I accidentally went a bit too deep.

After I got it all cut out I took my dremel tool out and ground the remnants of the weld away. It will need a bit more massaging to be perfect but will work for now. Went to the junk yard and filler assembly and door. Got it all installed and looking fairly good.

[l79m20]

I lifted the bed off the frame with a couple straps and a cherry picker. It was easier to try and plumb the filler assembly parts when I could get under it a bit better and move it where I needed it to go.

Filler assembly went in without a hitch. Got the bed set down on the frame after connecting hoses to tank. After doing so I realized that the larger diameter hose I had bought from Bluestem(Farm and Ranch Store) was a bit small on the inside diameter. The smaller hose fit perfectly. I will have to go and get the right size from Napa this week sometime. Remembered that when I put the bedsides on last summer I didn't put all of the bolts in, just enough to get it together. Used more of my cleaned and painted bolts and got it %100 assembled, and then went ahead and bolted the bed down for good, shouldn't need to pull it anymore.

[l79m20]

I put about 5 gallons of gas in the tank with the bed off. After I had it all put back together I went ahead and cranked the motor a bunch to prime the fuel system. Took a few minutes but finally got fuel up to the hard line on the carb. Put it back in place and cranked it over. Started right up and ran on its own for a couple minutes. All gauges were working, oil pressure was good, battery was charging, and sending unit was reading accurately. Motor wasn't running long enough for temp gauge to get warm. Will have some tuning to do to get it to run perfect. Went ahead and measure for driveshaft shortening, will get cut down to 46". Should get that done this week and then put into the truck this coming weekend, which means................I will be able to drive it!!!!!!!!! What a milestone!

I did take a parting shot as I left it for the weekend.

[l79m20]

A bit off subject but my wife, mom and dad and I drove up to Ottawa KS on Saturday to check out the car show. Its for vehicles 1972 and older. We got there at about 10 and left at almost 3. Probably didnt see everything, but got close. Show was at the park, lots of trees, lots of shade and lots of cars. Last number I heard was 2120. It was an awesome show, totally worth the time to check it out. Lots of vendors and fairly decent parking. Check it out next year if you are close!

[l79m20]

Took my driveshaft to Inland Truck Parts here in Wichita to have it shortened. Took them 2hrs to cut it, weld it, paint it, and put in new u-joints. Only cost me $135. Pretty excited. This means I can drive it soon!

[y5mgisi]

Good service!

[l79m20]

I was pretty happy with it all. $80 to cut and weld it. I was going to jokingly ask if they painted it too and then he brought it out all painted up nice and all I could say was wow. Not everywhere has that good of service. Makes me want to go back next time I need something.

[l79m20]

Got the drive shaft installed this weekend. Filled tranny with fluid and tested her out. Drove it up and down the driveway, forgot to stop and get a poser picture Motor runs okish, carb needs a rebuild. I think I have an extra holley laying around somewhere that I can swap out for that quadrajunk.

[l79m20]

Got some time to work on the truck. Drivers side and passenger side floor pans had a bit of scaley surface rust on them and I wanted to knock it all off and put some paint on it. Plans for the floor will be to undercoat it all and then go back over it with an OE style rubber floor mat. Here are some before and after shots.

[l79m20]

Driver side

[l79m20]

Next up was tailgate work.
First trying to get the old CO-OP sticker off the top right corner. It was a chore for sure.

Got that all scraped off finally and did some mega sanding and wire wheeling around the letters.

I then hit it with the rusty metal brush on primer. Probably a mistake, but if I have to sand it off again I will do it.

I thought it looked pretty decent.

[l79m20]

My next project was an idea I had a few weeks ago after I found my steel wheels and hubcaps. My truck is really going to look like a lifted farm truck, and thats what I want, but I have an idea for a bit of "custom" hubcap work. I will be having a white step bumper in the rear and I plan on either painting my chrome bumper(?) or more likely buying a painted front bumper and making it white. This is an original hubcap below.

Here is my custom work. White where it was black and green where it was ochre(yellow)

The green was a quicky way to do it, so it doesnt look the greatest but I can always fix that. This was mostly a test to see if I liked it. And I do for sure! Here they are side by side for comparison.

I also laid them on my steel wheels to see which one I would like the best.


What do you guys think? White and green or original? I am totally loving the white and green, but I may be biased. I think it looks even better on the wheels themselves.

[l79m20]

Found a can of green spray paint and decided to paint the passenger bedside. Makes it nice having the truck get closer to one color.

[l79m20]

And now some POSER pics.......